Supporting Language Development With Rich Stories and Vibrant Conversation by Akimi Gibson The early years of childhood are the most critical. Learning begins long before schooling does, and it continues throughout life. Research has shown that children who have success during the first six years of life are likely to have success from then on—all through the school years and after graduation. How can early childhood educators help make that success happen?
Building a Strong Foundation Success at school is set against the backdrop of a child’s home and community. The relationship between parent and child, as well as a child’s inherent traits, sets the stage for a child’s earliest development. From there, add into the mix the child’s encounters and interactions with his or her surroundings, which include peers and nurturing adults. Well before the school years, children experience all the domains of development: curiosity and creativity, social and emotional, language and literacy, math and science, and physical. These domains are related and interdependent, and recent research has brought to light the powerful link between social and emotional development and academic learning. This link underscores the importance of attending to and celebrating the diversity of each child’s culture and home language, family makeup, learning style, interests, temperament, and any special needs. Research has also revealed not only the dynamic learning potential of children when they are in responsive, nurturing, and stimulating environments, but also the detrimental effect on children when they are deprived of these settings. Research, when combined with best educational practice, reveals an understanding of how to create successful opportunities for our youngest learners. We now know that all children need a curriculum that is developmentally responsive and attends to the domains of development. Learning
experiences should actively build new knowledge on children’s existing understandings, in part through purposeful play and exploration and in part through actively participating in a language- and conversation-rich environment (Delpit, 1995). Supporting Language Development Language and vocabulary underlie all of learning. Psychologists Piaget and Vygotsky studied the relationship between language and thought, and how children put language at the service of ideas. Children who acquire a substantial vocabulary are often better able to think deeply, express themselves clearly, and actually learn new things more quickly (Neuman, 2006). Many people assume that young children will acquire rich language and vocabulary on their own (Snow, 2008). On the contrary, language development happens in a social and cultural context—between adults and children as well as among children themselves (Hilliard, 2001; Delpit, 1995). Unfortunately, in many early childhood classrooms, the adults tend to dominate the language behavior. Children need to be part of rich conversations in order to develop their skills at both receptive (listening) and expressive (speaking) language (Dickinson & Tabors, eds., 2001). It is best if these conversations can be guided and enriched by adults—through stories and songs, talking about experiences, and wordplay (Landry, 2004). However, children must be included in the talk.
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